The present invention relates to heat transfer sheeting of the type including a supported image disposed on a carrier substrate which, when properly heated, transfers the supported image to a receiver substrate such a fabric or a garment. More specifically, the present invention relates to heat transfer sheeting which includes an indicator which signals that appropriate transfer conditions, such as thermal and or pressure, including threshold temperature and minimum time duration, have been accomplished and satisfied to provide complete and high quality image transfer results.
Heat transfer sheeting is known and has been a popular means for transferring a design or reflective design onto an article, such as a garment, reference for example, heat transfer sheeting articles and methods disclosed in U. S. Pat. Nos. 5,484,644, and 4,248,500, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
A common problem with heat transfer sheeting is that operators frequently inconsistently apply heat to the transfer sheeting resulting in, for example, incomplete transfer of the image when the heating and or pressure is too low or too brief in duration, or a damaged or burned image when the heating and or pressure is too high or too long in duration.
The present invention provides a simple solution to the aforementioned problems by providing a thermally sensitive and or time sensitive indicator which indicates when satisfactory thermal, pressure, and durational conditions have been achieved so that high quality and high reproducibility of transferred images can be consistently obtained.